Just menacing enough.
“Hello, Walter.”
“You’re out of your goddamn mind!” Crowley spat.
That bland mug of his actually worked up some emotion, the tiny dark eyes dancing with outrage in the pale oval face under the thinning amber hair. His fists were clenched, and they looked small, like a child’s. He wasn’t a small man, but he was smaller than me, and fish-belly pale.
Bureaucrats can make your life a living hell, but they often don’t look like much in the flesh.
“I decided to move our meeting up a few hours,” I said. “And change the location. Last-minute changes for meets, there’s another security measure you Company boys may want to consider.”
“Morgan, there are half a dozen agents on this floor!”
“Yeah, all snug in their beds, or maybe down by the pool trying to get laid. Guys on your side of the fence never figure they need any protection. You’re big bad G-men, after all.”
“What the hell do you want?”
“Like I said on the phone—I want to talk. I just don’t want to get my ass hauled off to the slammer before we have the chance to confab.”
“I told you I’d come alone tomorrow.”
“Yeah, well, you were lying. But I don’t hold that against you. I already knew I wasn’t going to show up at that park.”
His upper lip curled back in outrage, exposing too much gum and tiny white teeth. “Where is Kim Stacy? What have you done with Kim Stacy!”
“I left her in that diner. She’s probably back in her room, by now, down the hall, if you’re to be believed. Why don’t you call her? But she might be cross, if you wake her up.”
His eyes tightened. “She doesn’t have anything to do with this?”
“No. But I did talk to her, and she did admit that you people are looking for Jaimie Halaquez, too.”
His eyes stayed tight and his chin crinkled. Should he talk to me? Finally he decided. “That’s right, Morgan. We are.”
I grinned at him. “You weren’t in Miami looking for me. You were already here on the Halaquez case. And I just walked into it.”
Crowley nodded. “But I think we gave you proper attention. I don’t think you need to feel neglected.”
“No, no complaints. You’ve kept me hopping. It’s tempting just to shoot you, so I can hijack that bed for a decent night’s sleep.”
He smiled a little. It bordered on a sneer. “But you’re not a killer, Morgan. You kill, but only in self-defense.”
“Well, Walter, I’d guess I’d have to agree with you. But that’s more a rule of thumb than a rule. You still don’t want to get on my bad side.”
“I would guess I already am.”
“Not really. You’re just a guy trying to do your job. You’re a working stiff who’s confused and doesn’t know it, because you’re on the wrong track. I’m not the guy you should be going after.”
That got half a smile out of him, putting a dimple in that smooth face. “Really? Who is the guy I should looking for?”
“Hell, I don’t know. All I know is, I didn’t take down that money truck. Kim Stacy told you what she heard on that runway in Nuevo Cadiz, didn’t she?”
“She did. But we discounted it. You have a reputation for having a certain...charm. Especially with the ladies.”
“And yet you kept her on the company payroll? Didn’t discipline her in any way?”
Crowley’s tone was gently mocking. “Why should a woman be disciplined for loyalty to her own husband? Besides, she’s a fine agent.”
“Sure, Walter. And there’s that other little thing.”
“What other little thing is that, Morgan?”
“That someday she might lead you to me.”
“And here you sit.”
“And there you sit. While here I sit with a gun.”
“You won’t use it.”
“Don’t push it, Walter. Look, I don’t expect you not to do your job. But since you didn’t come to Miami looking for me—since Jaimie Halaquez was the man you were after—why don’t you just postpone the Morgan manhunt until the other job is done?”
“Why should I do that?”
“Because I’m looking for Halaquez, too. I’m working on behalf of the Cuban exiles he robbed. I want to get their money back for them. And I’d be glad to turn him over to you when I’ve shaken that dough out of him.”
He laughed. A small laugh, but a laugh. “You think you’ll get him before we do? We have an operation already well underway.”
“Well, I have my charm, remember. It’s possible, going down my own paths and byways, that I might get to him before you do. My priority is that money.”
He stopped smiling. He was thinking.
Finally, cocking his head, he said, “What are you proposing?”
“Not that we throw in together, not exactly. Just call off the dogs. Let me move freely through this city. I’ll keep you informed, calling you here at the hotel. And if I find him, and don’t have to kill him...he’s yours.”
Crowley’s eyes moved with thought as he tried to find a flaw in my proposal.
Then he asked, “And what then?”
“After I turn him over...or after you catch him, if I’m not part of it...you pay me the courtesy of giving me twenty-four hours before you open the Company kennels again. It’s a fair request, Walter.”
“It’s fair, but it’s nothing my superiors would endorse.”
“Don’t ask them. Someday I’ll prove my innocence, and you’ll know you did the right thing.”
Crowley thought some more.
Then: “Oh-kay....but there’s nothing I can give you but my word.”
“I accept that.”
He laughed, loud enough to ring off the plaster walls. “Are you sure? You didn’t believe me on the phone when I said I’d come alone tomorrow.”
“We’re in the same room, and we’re looking at each other. And you’re looking down the barrel of my gun. I’ll take your word.”
He nodded. “What now?”
“I’ve already briefed Kim Stacy on my activities of the last few days. She can fill you in.”
And that would leave how much she told Crowley to her own discretion.
I went on: “But with one of the byways I’m going down, I could use some help.”
“You said we wouldn’t be working together.”
“This is just some information that I could use. You may not even have it.”
“All right. Go ahead, Morgan. Ask.”
“Does the name Richard Best mean anything to you?”
“No.”
“How about Richard Parvain?”
Now he frowned. “Parvain you say? You wouldn’t be talking about an inventor by any chance?”
“That’s right. What’s the story on him?”
His eyebrows went up, stayed there a few seconds, then came down again. “Well, he never worked for the government, not as an employee. Always on contract. I can’t tell you what he was working on—”
“I can tell you. He was developing a sort of Geiger counter that could make its readings from a great distance. Like in an airplane.”
His eyebrows went up and down again, more quickly this time. “All right. I won’t deny that. The device was helpful. But then Parvain had a nervous breakdown, and a drinking problem, and he became a bad risk. He had another, even more important concept that he never delivered on. Finally, ties were cut with him.”
“How long ago?”
“Oh...five years...seven years.”
“What was the ‘important concept’?”
“Morgan, that’s classified—you know I can’t...”
“Crowley, you said yourself Parvain never delivered. What was the concept?”
“Why?”
“Because he was murdered two days ago. Under the Richard Best name.”